ECU Libraries Catalog

The beauty and the terror : the Italian renaissance and the rise of the west / Catherine Fletcher.

Author/creator Fletcher, Catherine, 1975- author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
Copyright Notice ©2020
Description419 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), map ; 25 cm
Subject(s)
Portion of title Italian renaissance and the rise of the west.
Contents 1492 -- The fifteenth century -- Beyond the Alps -- 1494: The French descent -- The Borgias vs Savonarola -- The art of war -- Soldiers and society -- Wars for the New World -- Popes, princes and republics -- The run-up to the Reformation -- The League of Cambrai -- Women and power -- The ghetto and the politics of Venice -- The battle for the Church -- The High Renaissance -- From Pavia to Moha̹cs -- Wars of Words -- The invention of pornography -- The sack of Rome -- Courtiers and the art of power in Italy and beyond -- The empire at war -- Weapons of war -- The Council of Trent -- Art, science and reform -- The peace of Cateau-Cambre̹sis -- The index and the Inquisition -- The Battle of Lepanto -- From hard power to soft.
Abstract "The period between 1492--resonant for a number of reasons--and 1571, when the Ottoman navy was defeated in the Battle of Lepanto, embraces what we know as the Renaissance, one of the most dynamic and creatively explosive epochs in world history. Here is the period that gave rise to so many great artists and figures, and which by its connection to its classical heritage enabled a redefinition, even reinvention, of human potential. It was a moment both of violent struggle and great achievement, of Michelangelo and da Vinci as well as the Borgias and Machiavelli. At the hub of this cultural and intellectual ferment was Italy. The Beauty and the Terror offers a vibrant history of Renaissance Italy and its crucial role in the emergence of the Western world. Drawing on a rich range of sources--letters, interrogation records, maps, artworks, and inventories--Catherine Fletcher explores both the explosion of artistic expression and years of bloody conflict between Spain and France, between Catholic and Protestant, between Christian and Muslim; in doing so, she presents a new way of witnessing the birth of the West."--Provided by published.
General note"First published in the UK by The Bodley Head in 2020"--Title page verso.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages [353]-377) and index.
Genre/formHistory.
ISBN0190908491
ISBN9780190908492 (hardcover)

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